We are in touch with FACT, HAAP, SOFAP, PAFAA.*

And with Peter Tatchell's OutRage! And Stonewall: sometimes we attend conferences. We sometimes do talks to gay groups – like recently Leeds, South London, Age Concern in the Gay Village, and Ray to Aldgate St. Botolph's in September.

But we are very old.

There is an historical section to out website and that historical section is history. No one as old as us – apart from Antony Grey of the Albany Trust and HLRS.

We have retained, however, most of our faculties and a vast network of friends and acquaintances which is how we know what's what and express our OUTRAGE at the continuing injustices male homosexuals suffer in the UK from the law and homophobic prejudices that are not just tolerated but actively promoted within government (a Labour government) departments like probation service and CPS.

We need/we want to make a better effort at this site – but really need to be joined, “taken over” by others younger and fitter. We are very old. But as we do still get about within and around the gay community we do know what's what, what's happening now and care enough and are not ourselves frightened – we want summat done - to use a Northern bluntness – about what's not reet – male gays are set upon.

So …

1. There is a lot of injustice still in the UK.
2. Even more worrying is there is a lack of equipped, informed, campaigning effort now to change things further by the gay community itself who have won so much (partly by our oldies efforts) but who now want hedonism and who seem to be saying to those who do slip into the foulness “bugger you Jack – we're happy jacking into our own pleasures.”

It doesn't do the gay movements of the past much credit for gays of today to take that stance – when comrades are falling so dreadfully foul of both law and prejudice – persecution and homophobia – loss of their livelihood – loss of their homes – just because they're called as gay. RIGHT THE WRONGS.

START Re-campaigning.

HELP us you young ones – we are very old but we care.

We've had guts – it is your turn now.

We welcome the piece written by Elton John in THE OBSERVER Sunday 3 rd July 2005. Well done Elton. Well done The Observer.

And our responding letters back to the Observer we put.

Cheers – comrades of the past: and hopefully torchbearers of the future. on this website.

* These initials represent four organisation working to support victims of false allegations, not just sexual but anything from shoplifting to murder. None deal exclusively with gay men.

Letters arising….

Dear Sir,

Elton John (Make Prejudice History, comment, last week) wrote about persecution of gay men in 80 countries worldwide. While we Britons have at least won a great measure of equality, homophobic pressure still rides high and raw in cases that get so easily to the courts involving ‘historical abuse'. That is when alleges of B: ‘You messed with me X years ago when I was underage.'

There have been some heterosexual cases like this, but there are far more involving an allegation of some male-to-male sexuality. And the investigations and prosecutions of such allegations are pursued with a fury with dozens of dubious cases entering the courts across the country.

In Germany recently, ‘the bait' of almost automatic compensation awarded to those who make allegations has been dropped, and this has seen allegations fall by some 70 per cent. The UK needs to do something similar and the gay community to campaign for it so that we and Elton can truly say we have made prejudice history.

Ray Gosling - Nottingham
Observer, 10 July 2005

Dear Sir,

Elton John's commendable concern for the oppression of foreign gays should not be allowed to obscure the continuing, if diminished, discrimination at home.

He writes “There are many parts of the world where…..people face threats, attacks, prosecution and even possible execution because of their sexuality.” Apart from execution, the same dangers face gays in the UK. Although the law is now (just about) non-discriminatory in its enactment, is enforcement is a different matter. Gay men cruising – no longer an offence – still suffer harassment from many police forces and minor infringements of the laws relating to outdoor sex are regularly overlooked when committed by heterosexuals but rigidly enforced against gays.

Although the role of the police should be confined to preserving public decency, it still strays too often towards the enforcement of morality – and an almost universally rejected morality at that.

Allan Horsfall - Bolton
Letter to the Observer